The President of Costa Rica, Rodrigo Chaves Robles, regretted that the international community has not “been able” or has not “know how” to deal with Nicaragua and considered it “a bit unfair” to attribute Costa Rica “total responsibility” for that failure.
As part of his European tour that has also taken him to the Netherlands, Chaves gave an interview to the Efe news agency at the Costa Rican Embassy in Paris, the eve of the meeting with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, and two days after participating in the Dominican Republic at the XXVIII Ibero-American Summit.
The Costa Rican president asked for a greater economic contribution from the United States and Canada, destination countries for a large part of Central American immigration, to deal with the wave of people from Nicaragua and also from Venezuela.
“In other forums,” he recalled, we have made calls saying that this is an international problem. The United States and Canada and the other countries, which are the destination of these migrants, if Costa Rica were to be less hospitable, should contribute because it is a global phenomenon.”
He referred to the departure of the Venezuelans who were in Colombia and headed for Costa Rica and noted that in that case “we had a very precarious situation.”
“We have made —he added— a call for you to help us continue being the great global citizen that we have been, responsible, hospitable because we believe in the human rights of all people. But it’s costing us too much money.” Chaves estimated the costs of receiving immigrants, who represent 20% of the Costa Rican population, at almost 300 million dollars annually.
Is Costa Rica’s request having concrete responses? “No, not with the amounts and the strength that we need. And that is forcing us to have to consider actions that we do not want to take.. But we are confident that in the end the international community will understand the joint responsibility we have.”
Nicaragua “has an Army, we don’t”
Regarding the role of Nicaragua in the region, Chaves called it “complex” and spoke of the recent suspension of relations with the Vatican decreed by President Daniel Ortega, the expulsion of most international NGOs, the rupture of relations with the Netherlands and the withdrawal of the nationality and civil rights of more than 300 members of the opposition.
“The world has not known or has not been able to deal with Nicaragua, it is a bit unfair to put total responsibility on Costa Rica,” he complained, before stressing that the Nicaraguan authorities “have an Army, we don’t” and also “They have military support from countries like Russia, and we don’t and we don’t want to have it.”
The Costa Rican head of state insisted that his country trusts “in the international legal framework and rules, including mutual assistance treaties in the Western Hemisphere.”
“With the Nicaraguan government we want a peaceful coexistence, although we do not approve, as we say in international forums, what happens there in terms of human rights and democracy.”
oceans summit
On his European tour, Chaves was in the Netherlands, where he took the opportunity to visit the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, and in Nice, where he met with the authorities of this city on the French Riviera to prepare the Conference of the UN Oceans of 2025, which is jointly organized there by France and Costa Rica.
“In 2025 we have to make the decisions not to steal the future from future generations, to give them a planet where they can live. That is why the great commitment of a small nation like Costa Rica, but one that has done very well in environmental terms”, he highlighted.
Likewise, Chaves met in Paris with the general director of Unesco, Audrey Azoulay; with French businessmen; and with the Secretary General of the OECD, Mathias Cormann, as well as with the ambassadors of that group of developed countries, of which Costa Rica has been a part since 2021. “The comments from the ambassadors were very positive, which we are very pleased with,” Indian. The president of Costa Rica said he had shown the expertise of your country on the protection of the ocean environment and public governance.